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$14.4 Million Awarded in Federal "Save America's Treasures" Grants

WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 19, 2003) -- The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will administer eight of the 63 new Save America's Treasures (SAT) grants that will receive up to $14,389,925 in federal funds to help protect and preserve our nation's irreplaceable cultural heritage. The new grants, announced Nov. 19 by Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton on behalf of NEH, the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH), and a partnership of federal agencies, will provide funding for urgently needed repairs, conservation, and restoration.

Laura Bush, Honorary Chair of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, said, "The story of America is told through historic architecture, art and writings. The grants provided by Save America's Treasures will help preserve these pieces of our heritage for future generations."

This year's grants administered by NEH reflect a diversity of subject matter and American themes. Several projects help to secure for future generations the works of the Founding Fathers, including the diaries of John Quincy Adams at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston and the first issue of the first edition of Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac at the Library Company of Philadelphia. Another award preserves the memory of a great American author through a grant to the Kennedy Library in Boston for its collection of Ernest Hemingway's papers.

NEH Chairman Bruce Cole said, "Collections of historic papers, photographs, films, and artifacts provide rich resources for understanding America's history and heritage. With our partner agencies, the National Endowment for the Humanities takes pride in preserving these resources and making them more widely available to all Americans."

The SAT federal grants program is administered by the Department of the Interior's National Park Service (NPS) in partnership with the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH), National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Grants must be matched dollar-for-dollar with non-federal funds. Save America's Treasures at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the private sector partner, each year assists many of the federal SAT grantees in raising required matching funds.

Save America's Treasures received 452 grant applications from eligible federal agencies; state, local and tribal governments; and nonprofit organizations, up from 389 last year. A panel of experts representing preservation and conservation disciplines reviewed the applications and recommended 63 awards. Selection criteria required that each project be of national significance, demonstrate an urgent preservation need, have an educational or other public benefit, and demonstrate the likely availability of non-federal matching funds.

Since FY 1999, 501 grants totaling $154 million have been awarded to preserve nationally significant and endangered historic buildings, structures, places, and archival and art collections. To date, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Midway Island have received grants.

Additional information on the Save America's Treasures program can be found on the PCAH Web site at www.pcah.gov, the NPS Web site at www2.cr.nps.gov/treasures/index.htm, or by contacting the NPS at 202-513-7270, ext. 6.

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About the National Endowment for the Humanities

Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.

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